Last modified: 2004-12-22 by rick wyatt
Keywords: united states | flag urban legend | urban legend | bullet | civilian flag |
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Nathaniel Hawthorn's The Scarlet Letter" contains a description of an American Customs flag erroneously described as having 13 stripes, when in fact it has 16. One stripe for each state at the time the flag was introduced. Remember, this was before limiting the stripes to 13. The story also states that this indicated a civil operation rather than military. This statement is somewhat true, but not totally accurate. Yes customs is a civil authority, but this does not mean that all civil authorities use this flag. Also let us not forget that the Scarlet letter is a work of fiction and not a research document by any means and therefore should not be used as a primary source. Primary sources would include legislation and executive orders, these are non-existent for the flag described at this site. The research for the U.S. flag legislation has been thoroughly researched by vexillologists and I think it would be safe to say that there is no legislation or executive order for the flag described.
Another erroneous source goes on to say that the Civilian flag should have Blue stars on white, not vice versa, and shows the stars arranged in a pattern identical to the current 50 star American flag established in 1960. If as he claims the Civil flag has been out of use since the 1860s, then, lacking the enabling legislation, the pattern should have been stopped at 33 or 35 stars. He also states that prior to WW II, states only flew their own